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Assessment of Open Ran: Difference between revisions
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Most telecommunications executives interviewed by Senza Fili believe that Open Ran is the greatest disruptions in the industry. <u>[Discussion: @Aron what do you think is the best way to specify the exact link source (page) of the source when citing]</u> Patrick Lopez, Global VP of Product Management for 5G at NEC said, “If we look at how fast Open RAN has emerged and reached a level of maturity that allows deployments at scale, we may conclude that it is one of the fastest-moving technologies in the telecom market ever.”<ref>https://senzafili.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SenzaFili_DD_ORAN_Ecosystem.pdf<!-- Page 48 --></ref> His views were echoed by others who believe that Open Ran would help them solve vendor-lock ins and other issues that were common in the traditional RAN. However, they also noted that Open Ran comes with its own challenges, which need the cooperation of the whole industry to overcome them. The greatest challenge being integration. Santiago Tenorio, Head of Network Strategy & Architecture at Vodafone once said in a webinar<ref>https://www.parallelwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/Parallel-Wireless-e-Book-Everything-You-Need-to-Know-about-Open-RAN.pdf<!-- Page 48 --></ref>, “We haven’t even scratched the surface of system integration challenges.” The good news is that integration is easier in greenfield deployments when compared to brownfield deployments. That is why most deployments have been in rural areas where the operators have to start from scratch. Deloitte estimates that as of December 2020, there were 35 Open Ran deployments in the world<ref>https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/TEE/The-Open-Future-of-Radio-Access-Networks.pdf<!-- Page 6 --></ref>. Around 85% of the deployments were in developing markets, with the majority being done in rural areas. But what exactly is Open Ran? Can it replace the traditional RAN? Does it reduce costs as argued by most experts? Let’s have a look! | Most telecommunications executives interviewed by Senza Fili believe that Open Ran is the greatest disruptions in the industry. <u>[Discussion: @Aron what do you think is the best way to specify the exact link source (page) of the source when citing]</u> Patrick Lopez, Global VP of Product Management for 5G at NEC said, “If we look at how fast Open RAN has emerged and reached a level of maturity that allows deployments at scale, we may conclude that it is one of the fastest-moving technologies in the telecom market ever.”<ref name=":4">https://senzafili.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/SenzaFili_DD_ORAN_Ecosystem.pdf<!-- Page 48 --></ref> His views were echoed by others who believe that Open Ran would help them solve vendor-lock ins and other issues that were common in the traditional RAN. However, they also noted that Open Ran comes with its own challenges, which need the cooperation of the whole industry to overcome them. The greatest challenge being integration. Santiago Tenorio, Head of Network Strategy & Architecture at Vodafone once said in a webinar<ref>https://www.parallelwireless.com/wp-content/uploads/Parallel-Wireless-e-Book-Everything-You-Need-to-Know-about-Open-RAN.pdf<!-- Page 48 --></ref>, “We haven’t even scratched the surface of system integration challenges.” The good news is that integration is easier in greenfield deployments when compared to brownfield deployments. That is why most deployments have been in rural areas where the operators have to start from scratch. Deloitte estimates that as of December 2020, there were 35 Open Ran deployments in the world<ref name=":5">https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/TEE/The-Open-Future-of-Radio-Access-Networks.pdf<!-- Page 6 --></ref>. Around 85% of the deployments were in developing markets, with the majority being done in rural areas. But what exactly is Open Ran? Can it replace the traditional RAN? Does it reduce costs as argued by most experts? Let’s have a look! | ||
== What’s Open RAN? == | == What’s Open RAN? == | ||
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=== Open Ran Can Reduce Costs By How Much? === | === Open Ran Can Reduce Costs By How Much? === | ||
Cost savings in Open Ran depend on many factors. For instance, an operator can save on the total cost of ownership(TCO) by choosing cheap vendors and proprietary solutions instead of COTs hardware. Adding visualization and cloud-native architecture will also help the vendor reduce maintenance costs. In general, cost savings can only be achieved if the operator chooses the most efficient options offered by Open Ran. But there have been testimonies confirming that Open Ran indeed reduces costs<ref>https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/TEE/The-Open-Future-of-Radio-Access-Networks.pdf</ref>. For example, Rakuten said it reduced CAPEX by 40% when it deployed Open Ran instead of traditional Ran. A report by Deloitte indicates that Open Ran can reduce CAPEX and OPEX by up to 50% and 35%, respectively. | Cost savings in Open Ran depend on many factors. For instance, an operator can save on the total cost of ownership(TCO) by choosing cheap vendors and proprietary solutions instead of COTs hardware. Adding visualization and cloud-native architecture will also help the vendor reduce maintenance costs. In general, cost savings can only be achieved if the operator chooses the most efficient options offered by Open Ran. But there have been testimonies confirming that Open Ran indeed reduces costs<ref>https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/pt/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/TEE/The-Open-Future-of-Radio-Access-Networks.pdf</ref>. For example, Rakuten said it reduced CAPEX by 40% when it deployed Open Ran instead of traditional Ran. A report by Deloitte indicates that Open Ran can reduce CAPEX and OPEX by up to 50% and 35%, respectively. | ||
=== When Will Open Ran Attains Maturity? === | |||
Open Ran is swiftly advancing towards Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) model. The highest level it has attained so far is the macro model<ref name=":4" />. Deloitte estimates that Open Ran will reach maturity in 3-5 years, with the revenue of public networks that deploy it coming at par with the revenue of traditional networks in 2028<ref name=":5" />. According to the forecast, Open Ran revenue will be around 14% of the total RAN revenue in 2022. Besides the desire by operators to reap the benefits of Open Ran, the current political environment favours it as it will help them to stay away from Chinese network vendors such as Huawei<ref name=":2" />. For instance, the US government has passed a bill to inject funding amounting to $750 million in the next ten years to support Open Ran deployments. Other governments, such as Japan, the UK, Germany, and India, have come up with similar support. | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||